Port in a Storm
Some say Palma de Mallorca is long overdue for a facelift. Sally Howard meets one of the architects with sights set on the resort’s skyline The teal waters of Palma de Mallorca’s bay are littered with the yachts of the holidaying Euro elite and its seafront is barnacled with high-rise hotels. Yet the resort has seemed [...]
Some say Palma de Mallorca is long overdue for a facelift. Sally Howard meets one of the architects with sights set on the resort’s skyline
alt="Palma de Mallorca’s Le Seu Cathedral catches the eye, but otherwise wow-factor architecture is in short supply">
The teal waters of Palma de Mallorca’s bay are littered with the yachts of the holidaying Euro elite and its seafront is barnacled with high-rise hotels. Yet the resort has seemed immune to the fever for architectural innovation that’s been gripping Spanish cities over the past decade. While Valencia answered Bilbao’s Guggenheim with the jaw-dropping sci-fiof the City of Arts and Sciences, Madrid expanded its Reina Sofia and Prado Museums with mucho brio and Barcelona’s strident 1992 Olympic revamp marched on apace, Palma de Mallorca’s movida – that new-found energy bubbling through post-millennium Spain – was expressed in other ways. You would simply see it in the tourists crowding the mazes of cobbled streets and the Balearic capital’s blossoming arts scene.
But watch out Barça and Bilbao: if a certain Mallorcan has his way there will be a new pretender to Spain’s architectural crown. In a public exhibition inside a packed
Town Council Building, architect Antoni Barceló, of Mallorca and Barcelona-based Barceló-Balanzó Arquitectes, unveiled his groundbreaking proposals.
This would be for a “sweeping green space” to link Palma’s iconic cathedral and Parque del Mar to the west of Palma Bay with the city’s Palau de Congressos (a sharpedged modern Convention Centre by architect Francisco Mangado due for completion this year) and a revamped Palma beach to the east (a project won by Holland’s West 8 Architects).
“It was very emotive,” says the 37-year-old Barceló. “I’m Mallorcan and generations of my family have lived here. It’s a project that means a lot to me.” If the spirited ovation
was anything to go by, Barceló’s fellow Mallorcans agreed.
“But the next question,” he admits, “was ‘How much will this cost?’” Barceló plans to redevelop the prime bay-front strip – which for the past two decades has been jealously
guarded for residential use by a powerful coterie of private owners. “Palma can be quite political, so it’s taken a year of tiring negotiation,” Barceló says, “but we’ve come to
an agreement to reclaim the land, offering to resite the residential properties inland.”
At the heart of Barceló and his partner Barbara Balanzó’s plans for ‘Parque Equipado’ is a progressive vision of the function of a city space for the 21st century.
alt="Architects Antonio Barceló and Barbara Balanzó planning for change">
How will the new Palma seafront look? The scale model on display shows a verdant mixed-use space on two levels – a street-level platform with a view out into the bay and
a lower level with squat vegetation and recreational space. Mid-rise buildings, centred around the listed 1950s HESO Electrics building, reach up through the abundant greenery. Concealed beneath these levels, a 1,000-bay car park promises to free up Palma’s streets for foot traffic.
Balanzó is based at the firm’s Barcelona office, but knows Palma well. She says: “We want this to be a space that’s alive day and night, weekday and weekend, with young people, executives taking lunch breaks and families. By emphasising such varied use we’ll keep the life in the area and recover it for everyone in the city.”
Much of the impetus for Palma’s new direction has come from its current city government, chiefly its mayor Aina Calvo, who’s credited with galvanising a new type
of growth for the city. “Until now,” explains Barceló, “we’ve grown organically. The Parque del Mar area, with its cafés and outdoor performance space, and Es Baluard
[a contemporary art museum in a former fortress] are wonderful, but there has been no overall view.”
alt="A coastal fortress has been transformed into the Es Baluard contemporary art museum">
Calvo’s bigger picture pans out to innovations such as radial ‘green corridors’ of parks and tree-planting and a new tram route along the Ronda. The centrepiece will be the
new Façana Maritima that, political wrangling permitting, should start construction next year.
How does Barceló think the world will view the newlook Palma de Mallorca? “The point is how Palma will view the world. As one of the most important ports in the
Mediterranean, Palma has always been a strategic place for sea travel and trade but, until now, the water has had no relationship with the city – which always struck me as bizarre. Eventually, Palma will be able to turn its face to the sea.”
Unmissable new Palma
- Palau de Congressos
Designed by Navarre architect Francisco Mangado, the Palau Convention Centre and hotel is scheduled for completion this year. Mangado says: “The best building
material on the island is also the cheapest: the Mediterranean light.” Including great glass screens to capture light and a south façade that mimics the old city walls, the
Palau’s highlight will be a hanging garden with open views of the sea.
www.pcongresosdepalma.com - Es Baluard Contemporary Art Museum
The name of this museum in Catalan means ‘bulwark’ – a clue to the former function of the building as a fortification set within the medieval city walls. Unveiled in 2004 (by
architects Jaime and Luís García Ruiz, Ángel Sánchez-Cantalejo and Vicente Tomás), the development is accessed from three levels with interlinked ramps and galleries. Its design focuses on natural light and the spectacular views the site affords of the city, bay and cathedral.
www.esbaluard.org - Façana Maritima
The new Façana will return the seafront at Palma bay to public use, ranged around Barceló’s Parque Equipado, a mixed-use commercial/
public area on two levels carpeted with native Mediterranean plants and trees.
www.bbarquitectes.com - Playa de Palma
The rejuvenation of 1,450 hectares of beach area, a commission won in February 2008 by Dutch architects West 8. Plans include ecological transport (bikes and a light tram network) and the construction of a new palm-shaded beach boulevard.
www.west8.nl
